Lyse Doucet Of The BBC Interviews Osama
In these marches all over France, Muslims were almost entirely absent. Oh, a few could be seen, here and there (very much here and there), apparently, and apparently, too, every news reporter tried hard to find a Muslim to interview in order to show that the Muslims in France were just as horrified as anyone else, and that this was indeed a Unity Rally, a Rally for France And Free Speech. There was not a hijab in sight,, and the handful of Muslims interviewed — fewer than a dozen, in a day of reporting, appeared to be either from black Africa (and thus their Islam diluted by non-Islamic elements and easier-going attitudes),or young people of the kind who are “Muslims-for-identification-purposes-only Muslims, yet still hoping to protect, for reasons of filial piety, the image of Islam. The most amusing of these interviews was that of Lyse Doucet (she who for a decade reported so nastily, so cruelly, and so unfairlly on Israel, showing not the slightest understanding either of the Jihad waged against Israel, or of Islam, or of Israel’s attempts to defend itself and its people). She had found two people whom she thought were Muslims — one a young man, nondescript, and another, with a kindly, intelligent face, named “Osama.” No doubt in her careful search for “representative” Muslims to interview — to give BBC audiences the illusion that there were Muslims participating, whole-heartedly, and in great numbers, denouncing the killings at Charle-Hebdo (but even Lyse Doucet didn’t dare suggest any outpouring of sympathy and grief at the Hyper Cacher by Muslims) — she thought she’d hit pay dirt with the highly presentable Osama. Imagine how flustered and annoyed she was to discover, as she said, sure of the answer, “So Osama, you are a Muslim then” before asking him about his participation in the march, only to have him say, on camera, and not to be expunged (but that episode was never re-run, and I’m so glad I managed to see it and to share it with you), that “no, I’m a Christian.” And if he is named Osama, he either grew up in a Muslim–dominated land (say, Pakistan) or, still better, was a convert from Islam to Christianity, and someone who could not be fooled about Islam, and would not collaborate with that arch-collaborator with Islam, Lyse Doucet. It is one of the high points of the coverage. Perhaps someone technollogically advanced can find that clip of Lyse Doucet and Osama, and put it up on YouTube. That would be good.